Ottawa has quietly removed nearly 1,900 companies from its official list of accredited indigenous suppliers after complaints that businesses falsely claimed indigenous ownership to secure millions of dollars in federal contracts.According to a Commons inquiry response from Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty’s department, 1,881 contractors were struck from the Indigenous Business Directory, which had previously listed 2,925 verified suppliers. Blacklock's Reporter says the removals followed reviews for ineligibility, non-responsiveness, or at the request of the businesses themselves.“The list represents a snapshot in time and should not be relied upon to determine current eligibility,” the department said in its response, adding that companies can be delisted for failing to meet program requirements.The figures were disclosed after Conservative MP Billy Morin of Edmonton Northwest asked how many firms had been removed from the directory used to administer the federal procurement strategy for indigenous business. Of the total removals, 635 occurred last year alone..Businesses listed in the directory receive preferential access to 5% of federal contracts reserved for firms owned by indigenous shareholders. The companies later removed from the list had collectively been awarded $38,731,919 in government contracts.The department confirmed one supplier was referred to police on suspicion of faking an Indian Status card, though the company was not identified.When asked how many firms were ordered to repay money obtained through misrepresentation, Indigenous Services said it could not answer. “The information requested is not systematically tracked in a centralized database,” the department replied.Concerns about abuse of the system have been raised repeatedly in Parliament. Joanna Bernard, a director with the Assembly of First Nations, told a Commons government operations committee in 2024 that the program was vulnerable to exploitation..“There have been token Indians,” Bernard testified, describing cases where indigenous individuals were nominally attached to companies with no real control or involvement. She warned that some were paid small sums simply to lend their name to shell companies.A 2025 departmental audit appeared to confirm widespread problems. It found two-thirds of suppliers claiming indigenous ownership could not properly verify those claims. A random sample of 50 businesses showed 68% had missing or incomplete documentation, according to the Audit of the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Businesses.Auditors cited gaps in staff training, weak oversight of third-party verification, and inconsistent checks of contractors’ claims of membership in indigenous organizations, concluding there were “several opportunities for improvement” in the program’s administration.
